enterprise minnesota magazine - winter 2015

TRAINING

LAKESHIRTS NEARS A STUNNING $6O MILLION

Helping Manufacturing Enterprises Grow Profitably

WINTER 2015

NONPROFIT ORGU S POSTAGE

PAIDSlayton, MN

PERMIT NO. 22

Enterprise Minnesota310 4th Avenue S. Suite #7050Minneapolis, MN 55415

the

A new generation of qualified employees isn’t going to magically appear. Savvy manufacturers are preparing to do more with less.

AddressSkills Gapto

NovelStrategies

Client: MNsure Title: SHOP Ad

Job#: 1325-4779Version: Enterprise MN CD: Jac Coverdale Designer: Adam St John Prod. Mgr: Abbey JensenKeyliner: Adam St John

Broker: BUILT AT 100%Bleed: NATrim: NALive: 7” x 10”Printed at: 100%Date: 10/7-15

Built at 100%

WE KNOW HEALTHCARE.YOU KNOW YOUR BUSINESS.

MNsure’s Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) helps small business owners like you easily compare and select medical and dental plans. With SHOP, you’re able to give your employees a variety of options, all while managing your own costs and qualifying for potential tax credits. Our expert MNsure brokers will help you fi nd the plans that work for your employees and your business.

Contact a MNsure SHOP lead broker agency at no charge or visit MNsureSHOP.org.

6701 Upper Afton Rd Woodbury651-739-2010 leclairgroup.com

2648 Broadway Ave in Slayton507-836-8844 244 W. Main St in Marshall507-337-0027investors-choice.com

10 Firestone Drive in Mankato200 N. Broadway in New Ulm507-233-2600 unitedprairieinsurance.com

1811 Traymore Rd Minnetonka952-746-5110 tonkafi nancialservices.com

ALC Job#: 245810File Name: MNsure_SHOP_EnterpriseMN_7x10_BW

Date: 10/12/15Rev.#: 00 SWOP15 South 5th Street • Suite 1148 • Minneapolis, MN 55402 • 612.386.0546

WINTER 2015

18TRAINING 5 NOVEL STRATEGIES TO

ADDRESS THE SKILLS GAPA new generation of qualified employees isn’t going to magically appear. Savvy manufacturers are preparing to do more with less.

4Yesterday’s MindsetThe looming skills gap requires us to upgrade our attitudes

2Fired UpRosenbauer leans up its operation to accommodate record fire truck sales

The Bully PulpitManufacturers have a great story to tell. But you have to tell it.

Don’t Doubt ItHouse Speaker Kurt Daudt spends 90 minutes touring local manufacturer

6 32

WINTER 2015 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA / 1

Visit the Enterprise Minnesota website for more details on what’s covered in the magazine at www.enterpriseminnesota.org.

Subscribe to The Weekly Report and Enterprise Minnesota® magazine today! Get updates on the people, companies, and trends that drive Minnesota’s manufacturing community. To subscribe, please visit www.enterpriseminnesota.org/subscribe.

CLOSE TO HOMELakeshirts has used a disciplined sense of their marketplace, well-timed acquisitions, and a sense of irreverence to create an apparel company that does $60 million.

SAVVY STRATEGISTBusiness growth consultant Mary Connor sets her focus on the big picture

24 28

ou’d be hard-pressed to find successful manufacturers who expect to compete in high-tech

global markets by using yesterday’s technologies. Yet when confronted with the cold realities of the looming skills gap too many of these otherwise market-savvy executives think all they have to do is wait it out. Like other market fluctuations, they conclude, this problem will eventually find its equilibrium.

That might be yesterday’s strategic thinking.

The overlooked dynamic in today’s skills gap equation is the demographic reality that there simply aren’t enough

young people to accommodate all the employment challenges in Minnesota’s economy. And one of the overlooked resolutions of the skills gap is that manufacturers who best cope with the skills gap are the ones who learn how to

accomplish more with fewer people.We framed up this topic as the backdrop

for this year’s Statewide CEO Council, Enterprise Minnesota’s annual daylong conference reserved exclusively for members of our regional CEO councils. And we have collected the insights from five key presentations that day to create this issue’s cover story, Five Strategies in the Fight Against the Skills Gap.

Keynote speaker Joe Mulford, the newly appointed president at Pine Tech-nical and Community College, set up the discussion when he told the 75 assembled CEOs that manufacturers are 41st on a list of business sectors in the demand for employees.

“People who have the skill sets that you’re looking for have a lot of options,” he says. “If they’re somebody who has the intellectual capacity to be an engineer, they can just as well be an airline pilot, or a salesperson or some sort of medical technician.”

More to the point, MnSCU doesn’t have sufficient capacity to solve the problem merely by adding more course-work, he adds. The demographics of the millennial generation just aren’t there. “I could never turn out enough graduates from our college to fill every vacancy in the region,” he says. “I wish I could.”

Mulford’s analysis was augmented by four excellent presentations that addressed the new reality for successful manufacturers, each made by one of Enterprise Minnesota’s business consultants. They discussed the importance of perfecting strategies, a focus on continuous improvement, the value of generating new leaders, and ways to strengthen companies through ISO.

The skills gap challenge is going to be with us for a long time. The manufacturers who best cope with it are the ones who will be looking for out-of-the-box solutions.

Yesterday’s MindsetThe looming skills gap suggests that we upgrade our attitudes

Y

bob kill

Bob Kill is president and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota.

2 / ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA WINTER 2015

Member, Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association

Printed with soy ink on recycled paper, at least 10 percent post-consumer waste fiber.

ContactsTo subscribe

[email protected]

To change an address or renew [email protected]

For back issues [email protected]

For permission to copy [email protected]

612-455-4215

To make event reservations [email protected]

612-455-4239

For additional magazines and reprints contact Lynet DaPra at

[email protected] 612-455-4202

To advertise or sponsor an event [email protected], 612-455-4225

Enterprise Minnesota, Inc.310 Fourth Ave. S., #7050 Minneapolis, MN 55415

612-373-2900

©2015 Enterprise Minnesota ISSN#1060-8281. All rights reserved. Reproduction encouraged after obtaining

permission from Enterprise Minnesota magazine.

Additional magazines and reprints available for purchase. Contact Lynet DaPra at 612-455-4202 or [email protected].

Enterprise Minnesota magazine is published by Enterprise Minnesota

310 Fourth Ave. S., #7050, Minneapolis, MN 55415

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Enterprise Minnesota

310 Fourth Ave. S., #7050Minneapolis, MN 55415

Helping Manufacturing Enterprises Grow Profitably

PublisherLynn K. Shelton

Custom Publishing By

Contributing WritersLynn SheltonSuzy Frisch

PhotographersChris Morse

Jeremy PetrickMark Trockman

A whopping 95 percent of manufacturers who have a formal planning process expect increases in gross revenues and profitability in the coming year. — 2015 State of Manufacturing®

Enterprise Minnesota’s expert strategy consultants help manufacturing companies achieve operational excellence and profitable growth.

Call us today at 800-325-3073 or visit www.enterpriseminesota.org for a free initial consultation on how our formal business strategy process can help your company!

3 1 0 4 t h A v e . S o . , S u i t e 7 0 5 0 • M i n n e a p o l i s , M N 5 5 4 1 5

Scan here to learn more about how we can help your business


urt Daudt, the speaker of Minnesota’s House of Representatives recently spent 90 minutes touring

Zimmerman-based UMA Precision Machining.

UMA offers high-end service and advanced technology in its precision machine shop specializing in the medical, defense, and food and beverage industry components.

The tour was one of many arranged by Enterprise Minnesota for policymakers over the years.

In this case, Speaker Daudt received a tour from UMA founder Tom McChesney, a machinist with 30 years’ experience assisting medical device manufacturers with development and improvement of their devices. McChesney demonstrated how he recognized the market opportunity for a machine shop that partners with device manufacturers to develop and improve their devices and produce prototypes, one-ups, and pre-production parts.

“UMA is a great Minnesota success story,” Daudt said. “They’re part of the fast-growing medical device manufacturing sector and are likely to continue expanding thanks to the new ISO 9001:2008 certification they recently received. This certification is a major achievement for a company of their size, and puts them on the same playing field as much larger manufacturers in the United States and around the world.

“Manufacturing businesses like these provide good-paying jobs for thousands of Minnesota families in many parts of the

state, but, unfortunately, many are having trouble finding qualified workers to fill open positions,” he added. “Manufacturing careers can sustain families and be a boost for rural towns like those in my district.”

McChesney also provided Daudt with his own great entrepreneurial story. He founded UMA with one machine in his garage. In 10 years, UMA moved into new facilities adding new technology, new staff, and state-of-the-art manufacturing systems.

Enterprise Minnesota’s Lynn Shelton, who organized the tour, said it had the intended effect. “Almost without exception, policy-makers leave our tours with an eye-opening new appreciation for the value that their local manufacturers add to their local economies,” she said. “On top of that, they realize that manufacturing has long shed the old stereotype of providing low-paying, repetitive jobs in dingy and sometimes dangerous environments. They realize

K

Don’t Doubt ItHouse Speaker Kurt Daudt spends 90 minutes touring local manufacturer

manufacturing today can offer rewarding and challenging careers, especially for people who are willing to invest in the kind of training that will enable them to thrive in an increasingly sophisticated high-tech environment.

UMA earlier celebrated another milestone when Bob Kill, president & CEO of Enterprise Minnesota traveled to Zimmerman to help the company commemorate its ISO

9001:2008 registration.Attendees at the celebration

event included: Dan Solomon, field representative, U.S. Senator Al Franken; Steve Jones, ‎director of continuing education and customized training, Anoka-Ramsey Community College; and Chuck Nemer, manufacturing instructor, Anoka-Ramsey Community College. Tom McChesney, president of UMA Precision Machining, along with machinists, Pat Ronayne and Michael Scepurek, led the group on a tour of the company’s state-of-the-art facility.

“Becoming an ISO 9001:2008 registered company demonstrates

UMA Precision Machining’s commitment to quality products and quality business management,” said Kill said. “This is a significant achievement for all of UMA’s staff that will open up new business opportunities and position the organization for growth.”

ISO 9001:2008 is an internationally recognized standard that confirms a company is meeting the highest standards available for managing its business. A significant part of Enterprise Minnesota’s mission is to help companies achieve their registration. ISO is a “roadmap” of business activity that streamlines processes, confirms practices that correctly match up with supplier and customer needs, and states that company management methodically measures quality throughout its entire business. Enterprise Minnesota itself recently became an ISO 9001:2008 registered company and is among a small select group of consulting firms to pursue the certification.

PEOPLE TO WATCH

UMA founder Tom McChesney recently gave a plant tour to Minnesota Speaker Kurt Daudt.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E

ore than 75 manufacturing CEOs this year attended Enterprise

Minnesota’s Statewide CEO Council, a one-day event October 26 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest.

The conference was open exclusively to more than 90 manufacturing executives belonging to one of the 12 councils throughout Minnesota. Each council convenes one full day each month for a combination of topical presentations and open-ended conversation.

“In this way, members function as an informal, off-the-record advisory board for each other,” said Bob Kill, Enterprise Minnesota’s president and CEO.

“These groups prove time and again the value that manufacturing executives receive from sharing with each other what matters to them about emerging trends, competitive burdens, market opportunities and the challenges of leaning up increasingly sophisticated production operations.”

“We like to be in the center of that,” he added. “Enterprise Minnesota operates from an unofficial mission to be the convener of manufacturing decision-makers in Minnesota for groups large and small, about all sorts of issues.”

Attendees heard from four of Enterprise Minnesota’s top consultants on issues ranging from leadership, strategy, the new ISO standards, and continuous improvement.

Joe Mulford, the recently-appointed president of Pine Technical & Community College, provided the luncheon keynote.

The event concluded with a wide-ranging panel, moderated by Kill, that included Dane Anderson, president & CEO of FAST Global Solutions; Verne McPherson, CEO of Tolerance Masters; David Rhode, plant operations manager with Detroit Diesel Remanufacturing, LLC; and Mulford.


M

Top: The event concluded with a wide-ranging panel on manufacturing issues, moderated by President and CEO Bob Kill. Middle left: Enterprise Minnesota consultant Greg Langfield. Middle right: Keynoter Joe Mulford, president of Pine Technical and Community College. Bottom: Enter-prise Minnesota consultant Pat Voyles.

CEO ConferenceManufacturing CEOs from all across Minnesota gather for exclusive one-day event

PROFILE

bout 18 months ago, Steve Reedy knew he had to lean up the

Wyoming, MN operation of Rosenbauer America to prepare for an expected surge in sales. With 42 years of fire truck expe-rience, Reedy is vice president and gen-eral manager of the Minnesota operation of the Rosenbauer International Group, which has four independently operated facilities in the U.S. and another six in

Europe and Saudi Arabia, making it the largest fire truck manufacturer on the planet. This year the Minnesota division will construct 200 trucks and will likely report revenues of $100 million.

Reedy described his lean journey this fall at an Enterprise Minnesota business event, entitled How to Generate Quick Wins to Reignite Your Lean Journey at the Donaldson Company in Bloom-ington. The meeting was moderated by David Buchholz, a business growth consultant at Enterprise Minnesota who specializes in lean processes.

After trying and failing to implement efficiencies from within, Reedy asked


Buchholz and Sam Gould, two of Enterprise Minnesota’s top lean consultants, to have a look.

Space was a challenge, communication was ineffective, processes were some-times unnecessarily complex, and some older experienced employees seemed reluctant to change.

He recalled walking the Enterprise Minnesota team through a plant

inspection, actually “tripping over air hoses and extension cords and things like that.”

The Wyoming facility is the prime contractor to the end user fire departments. The company assembles the trucks at the Wyoming facility, getting the chassis from the another division (across the street in Wyoming) and the aerial ladder from the division in Nebraska.

“In my opinion, we’ve got the most difficult job because we have to bring together chassis, the aerial, the body, all of the electronic systems, the water plumbing systems, the 110-volt systems,

and the 12-volt systems, and make them work. It’s pretty complex.”

Another challenge to Reedy’s prospective lean efforts was that Rosenbauer’s core business consisted of individual one-off truck orders.

“They’re all different,” he said. “Everything is engineered per order. Every fire truck is a little bit different, so it’s really hard for us to repeat our processes.” He said some large customers, like Minneapolis, Fort Worth, Texas and Miami-Dade County buy multiple trucks at a time so, in the next situation, we can set up and run five trucks at a time, ten trucks at a time. “For Miami-Dade County, it was thirty trucks at a time. We really like those situations because we can really turn those trucks fast.”

The team discovered previously unknown communications issues; he said, “Everybody that was providing information to the next guy down the

line thought he was giving them perfect information. Many times the guy on the receiving end had no idea what he was talking about or what he was looking at.”

Production flow also presented a challenge, even in the company’s massive three-building campus. The company’s individual trucks are huge, sometimes up to 40 feet long and weighing 60,000 pounds. “We don’t engineer these trucks out a hundred percent except for the large orders,” he said. “We rely on our production guys to do a little finessing, if you will, and make sure that things fit together right.”

A big challenge was to convince long-time production workers that they could

A

Fired UpRosenbauer leans up its operation to accommodate record fire truck sales

PROFILE

Steve Reedy brings 42 years of fire truck experience to his role as vice president and general manager of Rosenbauer’s Minnesota operation.

“We rely on our production guys to do a little finessing, if you will, and make sure that things fit together right.”

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E

work from a smaller tool box. “It’s hard to tell a guy who’s 50 years old and who’s worked there 25 years and has a tool chest the size of a pickup box, that he really didn’t need that.” But they did.

A positive outgrowth of value stream mapping sessions was a unit Reedy now calls his Mod Squad. A final step in the

production process, he said, calls for customers to make final inspections in which they’ll identify things that need to be fixed or tweaked or added. “That would affect four assembly teams,” Reedy said. Each would stop their processes to accommodate the customers.

The new Mod Squad – modification

squad – takes on that responsibility itself. In all, a large accomplishment of

the activity was gaining buy-in from everybody.

“The first thing that we had to do is admit that we had some problems and convinced everybody in the group that we could do better,” Reedy said. “We have about two hundred and fifty employees in our fire truck division, so that was a big buy-in to get everybody on the same page.”

He said some veteran supervisors who didn’t attend the initial Lean 101 exercise were brought on board by those who did attend. They were “enthused and fired up, and that really helped us.”

The key to success, he said, was support from management. “We were really fortunate in our situation that management, from me to all of my colleagues in South Dakota and around the states plus the main plant in Austria, we all had management buy-in.” They all had the attitude, “We can do this. We want you to do it,” he said.


Craig Veurink Business Banking 952.927.1275

usbank.com/smallbusiness

Subject to normal credit approval and program guidelines. Some restrictions and fees may apply. Please see your banker for more information. Deposit products offered by U.S. Bank National Association. Member FDIC. © 2014

Whether you’re starting or expanding your business, U.S. Bank can help you manage cash flow, payments and loans for future growth opportunities. Call your local U.S. Bank Business Banker, and let’s talk.

Start Run Expand TransitionSolutions for every stage of your business

From 2 guys and a workbench to 56 people and a distribution center.


upply chain expert Kevin Von Grabe sympathizes with manufacturing

managers who are told blindly to merely lean up their inventory, solely because it appears to present a short-term financial savings.

Top management, he says, will typically approach this challenge with something like: “We have one hundred days of inventory, we want fifty days of inventory. Please do it.” With little or no other understanding of the complex company-wide ramifications underscoring the order, the result will, according to Von Grabe, lead to confusion, random projects and initiatives, and likely not achieve any real sustainable business results.

“Inventory control is a result of business decisions, Von Grabe says. “If we don’t change the business decision, we shouldn’t expect a different amount of inventory. We can play the games, we can take some out in the short term, we can make the last day of the month

S

Complex Inventory Supply chain expert says lean inventory must involve business decisions

LEAN ENTERPRISE SUMMIT

The summit is the brainchild of Tom Kammer, manufacturing consultant at South Central College, and Greg Thomas, a business development consultant at Enterprise Minnesota.

CLIMBING THE SUMMITSouth Central College and Enterprise Minnesota team up for another Lean Enterprise Summit.

Almost 150 manufacturers traveled to Mankato earlier this fall to attend the fourth annual Lean Enterprise Summit at South Central College.

The summit is the brainchild of Tom Kammer, manufacturing consultant at South Central College and Greg Thomas, a business development consultant at Enterprise Minnesota. Thomas says the idea was hatched one day when he and Kammer were having coffee with a couple manufacturers

who had attended a lean conference in Chicago.

They determined that manufacturing managers shouldn’t have to travel all the way to Chicago to take advantage of expertise that could be organized much closer to home. Plus, Thomas says, “with the support of event sponsors, we made it affordable enough that companies could send multiple representatives.” The event is a coproduction of Enterprise Minnesota and South Central College.

The curriculum included:

• The New ISO Standards and How They Align with Lean Thinking, presented by Kent Myhrman, a business growth consultant at Enterprise Minnesota.

• Sustainment Key Ingredients: Change Management and Standard Work, Steve Sorenson, continuous improvement coach, Johnsonville Sausage.

• SCRUM Project Management for Lean and Continuous Improvement, Tom Moore, president and CEO, Red Star Consulting.

• Visual Measurements for Continuous Improvement, Don Gifford, continuous improvement facilitator, North Iowa Area Community College and former vice president of operations at IMI Cornelius.

• Aligning People to Drive Successful Continuous Improvement, Pat Voyles, business growth consultant, Enterprise Minnesota, and Bill King, founder, Twin Cities Leadership Academy.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E

look remarkable. It’s going to show back up unless we change something fundamentally about our business.”

Companies maintain inventory because their manufacturing lead time is longer than their customers’ willingness to wait, Von Grabe says. Customers will not wait for a company’s long, complex supply chain demands. And, he adds, the challenge is likely to worsen. “Our customers are more demanding, they want more differentiation, more customization -- and the products that we’re offering are proliferating.”

The key, he says, is savvy forecast. “How much do we think we need? Where do we need it to fulfill our customers’ demand? They’re not going to wait for this very slow, long supply chain to get in motion. That explains why we need inventory.

He says that every shrewd manufacturer will begin the process by differentiating “its inventory selections.

“Every unit of inventory should be in a pile of inventory,” he says. They include:

• Cycle stock covers expected, average demand between replenishments.

• Buffer stock protects against common cause variation in our business.

• Safety stock covers special cause variations, unexpected one-off circumstances.

Reducing variations, he says, represents the “real work” of lean inventory. Companies have to understand the points of variation, how they are being measured, and whether they are being improved.

“The supply chain performance, and the variation, and the poor performance in our business, requires us to hold inventory, even if we don’t know exactly how much. We’re smart enough to know that all of these things we don’t know are going to be buffered against; if we improve those, we should be able to need less, or require less inventory.”

WINTER 2015 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA / 9File Name: BRHCOMY13335_MakeItHappen_EnterpriseMinn_BW_v1.indd Revision: 1

Inks Used: Black

Specifications:Trim Size: 2.75” x 4.875”Live Area: 2.625” x 4.75” Bleed Area: NoneBuilt at: 100%Printed at: None

Fonts:Dax OT (Regular, Medium)

Page 1 Links: (Name, Scaled %, Eff. DPI)

Arm_frame_BW.psd (852 ppi; 35.18%)

Client: BMO Harris | Ad Number: Y13335 | Publication: Enterprise Minnersota

Studio Artist: chi233Wrieglee | 1-10-2014 12:21 PM | Page 1 of 1 | Path: Studio:Volumes:Studio:Y&R:Acti...ItHappen_EnterpriseMinn_BW_v1.indd

Proofreader Copy Writer Art Director Creative Director Exec. Creative Dir. Prod. Manager Account Other

BMO Harris Bank N.A. Member FDIC

bmoharris.com/commercialbank

Make it happen.

BMO Harris Commercial Bank

has the resources and

expertise to help make your

vision a reality.

S:2.625”

S:4.75”

T:2.75”

T:4.875”

IN-DEPTH FISCAL ANALYSIS

WITH BUSINESS VALUATION

IN 30 MINUTES FOR $495

www.FiscalCheckup.com

FIAAD_1.indd 1 10/6/15 9:41 AM

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

KEVIN VON GRABEKevin Von Grabe is vice president, lean deployment at Leancor, a Kentucky-based supply chain consultancy. He is responsible for the deployment of lean solutions to LeanCor customers as well as supporting operational implementations. As a principal and member of LeanCor’s board of directors, Von Grabe provides strategic vision and organizational leadership for LeanCor LLC. In addition, he serves as an adjunct instructor for the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, the Laurier Executive Development Centre, Loyalist Training and Knowledge Centre, as well as LeanCor Training and Education. Kevin co-authored the lean supply chain management workbook Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream (2010 Lean Enterprise Institute). Due to its contribution of new knowledge to lean and operational excellence, Building a Lean Fulfillment Stream won the 2011 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award.

Von Grabe has focused his career on sourcing, materials management, transportation, consulting and third party logistics. This experience includes multiple operational launches, including the “green field” start up at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana. It also has provided him with several international experiences. These include operational startups for Jabil Circuit at green field and brown field manufacturing plants in both Hungary and China.

Our customers are more demanding, they want more differentiation, and more customization.

hip Tangen and Bob Arvold were recently added to the team

at Enterprise Minnesota, Tangen as relationship manager and Arvold as a business development consultant.

As relationship manager, Tangen will promote and build public/private partnerships that support the manufacturing industry statewide.

“Chip brings a wealth of experience working in manufacturing, public affairs,

government, and legal arenas and offers a great understanding of how public-private collaborations can create business growth,” said Bob Kill, Enterprise Minnesota’s president & CEO.

Before joining Enterprise Minnesota, Tangen served as a director of member and board relations at the National Association of Manufacturers; as a principal at the Podesta Group in Washington, D.C.; as vice president of legislative affairs for Northpoint Technology in Washington D.C.; and as director of communications for Citizens Advisers, Inc. in Portsmouth, NH. In addition, Tangen served as legislative counsel for U.S. Congressman Jim Ramstad and is a veteran of gubernatorial and congressional campaigns.

A resident of Inver Grove Heights, Tangen received a degree in political

science from Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Enterprise Minnesota, an ISO 9001:2008 certified consulting organization for medium-size and smaller manufacturing companies, has hired Bob Arvold to join its team of expert business development consultants that help Minnesota manufacturing enterprises grow profitably.

Arvold possesses a wealth of experience

in new business development, growing sales, and business turnaround at companies throughout the Twin Cities. He will serve as a partner for manufacturers in Ramsey and Washington counties looking to compete and grow.

“Bob has a proven track record of providing strategic results for his clients,” said Bob Kill, Enterprise Minnesota president and CEO. “He will be a valuable resource for Minnesota manufacturers looking to achieve measurable and sustainable business results.”

Before joining Enterprise Minnesota, Arvold served as president of Merxcity, as a vice president of sales for Merrill Corporation in St. Paul, and as a sales manager for Canon Business Solutions.

A resident of Oakdale, MN, Arvold holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Augsburg College in Minneapolis.


C

New BloodEnterprise Minnesota brings on two new staff members

Is tryIng to keep up wIth the ACA weArIng you down?

Find out how we can help you spend less and save more.

www.rjfagencies.com/ACAInfo

© 2015 Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP Baker Tilly refers to Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, an independently owned and managed member of Baker Tilly International.

Connect with us: bakertilly.com

Our manufacturing

specialists keep you

ahead of the curve.

So, go ahead,

swing confidently

for the fences.

Enterprise Minnesota’s new employees, Bob Arvold and Chip Tangen.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E


ill told almost 100 manufacturers in Fosston recently that Minnesota’s

manufacturing sector overwhelmingly expects to parlay recent success and a sturdy economy into solid business growth in 2015, according to the 2015 edition of the State of Manufacturing® survey.

He spoke at a quarterly meeting of the Highway 2West Manufacturers’ Association.

The survey revealed, he said, that manufacturers expect to expand, yet they also expressed concern about the looming shortage of skilled employees (especially fueled by retirements), the costs of health care, and other government policies.

The survey is produced by Enterprise Minnesota and is the most comprehensive survey of Minnesota’s manufacturers.

“Minnesota’s manufacturers are undoubtedly bullish about their prospects for 2015,” he said. “The chronic shortage of qualified workers, however, has manufacturers increasingly concerned that they will not be able to take full advantage of the improving economy.”

Mike Sorteberg, general manager of Ericco Manufacturing in rural Viking, said the poll’s findings echoed his perception of local manufacturers.

“It is exactly right on,” he said. “As a whole we are located in the part of the state

where there is lots of manufacturing and a lack of people. If you need a job, you’ve probably got a job. The other part of it is to get people to relocate up here. It is more rural. You don’t have the big cities with things going on.”

Since its founding in 2003, The Highway 2 Association has achieved enviable success.

“We all live in the same area and deal with pretty much the same issues,” Sorteberg said. The association gives them a chance to share ideas about how to solve them.

Kill said he is always impressed by their activism. “The existence of the Highway 2 group – and the large audience it regularly attracts to its meetings – confirms that manufacturers in northwestern Minnesota understand the value of collaboration at many levels,” Kill said.

The State of Manufacturing survey is conducted annually by Charleston, SC-based Meeting Street Research, which conducted phone interviews with 400 manufacturing executives, representing a geographically proportional cross-section of Minnesota between February 23 and March 18. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent. The research was complemented by 12 focus groups of manufacturing executives from around the state.

K

Highway 2 RevisitedNW manufacturers concur about the State of Manufacturing

Governingand GrowingCompanies inGreater Minnesota.

www.GraniteEquity.com

WHY DOHERT Y?• Woman-Owned• Accredited/Certi�ed• Flexible Options• Local MN Business• Connected Experts

WWW.DOHERT YEMPLOYMENT.COM

HR, Payroll & Bene�ts OutsourcingTemporary Sta�ng

On-site Sta�ngDirect Placement

Contract-to-Hire & More!

Partnering withMinnesota Manufacturers

SINCE 1980

The State of Manufacturing briefing attracted almost 100 manufacturers in Fosston.


#stcloudgreater

www.ci.stcloud.mn.us

St. Cloud Economic Development Authority

Cathy Mehelich, Executive Director

[email protected]

320.650.3111

Your First Stop for Business Locations, Financing Resources

and Development Opportunities

> Two Premier Industrial Parks> 5 to 80 Acre Lots> Shovel Ready Sites> Access to I-94, U.S. Hwy. 10, MN Hwys. 15 and 23 and St. Cloud Regional Airport> Fastest Growing Labor Force in MN and Nation (MN DEED)

White Bear Lake Kicks Off Its Manufacturing Pathway

Enterprise Minnesota’s president and CEO Bob Kill was a featured speaker at a community rally to kick off the Manufacturing Pathway program at White Bear Lake High School.

The White Bear Lake School District received a $250,000 grant from the United Way earlier this year to launch the program, designed to improve workforce readiness.

Other partners include the Vadnais Heights Economic Development Corpo-ration, Century College, and HIRED. The event is designed to engage students in the potential of a manufacturing career path, and provide industry and community leaders an opportunity to come together to highlight this impor-tant economic development issue. Oth-ers involved include: Minnesota High Tech Association, MACCE, and 360.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

S B

Y C

HR

IS M

OR

SE


randon-based Voyager Industries recently acquired Bear Track

Products of Evansville, MN. A staple in the aluminum trailer and ramp industry since 2000, Bear Track has proven itself by consistently manufacturing a quality product along with providing outstanding customer service. Bear Track trailers and loading ramps are sold through a network of knowledgeable and friendly dealers across the United States and Canada. The acquisition covers all product lines and manufacturing facilities.

Voyager Industries, founded in 1997, manufactures Voyager Dock, Titan Deck and Yetti Fish Houses. The company also does long term contract manufacturing and is a distributor/warehouse of aluminum

raw material for a variety of customers. “Bear Track and Voyager are extremely

similar. This is a very strategic move for us and fits into our capabilities perfectly,” said Gary Suckow, CEO of Voyager Industries. “They have built a great business and a quality product. We have the ability to grow the product line and the space to increase production to meet current and future dealer demand. Plus, we will be able to put our engineering team behind the product line to make improvements as needed. We also plan to introduce new products to the marketplace. It is our goal to retain a majority of current Bear Track employees and as sales increase we will need to grow our production staff.”

Voyager currently has over 85 employees and 90,000 square feet of warehousing, manufacturing and product development space.

B

Growth in BrandonVoyager Industries Acquires Bear Track Products

SNOOZE BUTTON?IN YOUR DREAMS.

Bremer.com 800-908-BANK (2265)Member FDIC. © 2015 Bremer Financial Corporation. All rights reserved.

Banking should be the last thing on your mind when you’re busy. Our flexibility and quick decision-making will help you get the tailored financial solutions you need so you can focus on achieving your business goals. Come see us today.

WORK HARD. BANK EASY.

Q3 Magazine Ad.indd 1 8/31/15 4:22 PM

“This is a very strategic move for us and fits into our capabilities perfectly.”

(Pictured Left to Right: Jon Boutain, CFO, Voyager Industries; Bob Kill Presi-dent and CEO, Enterprise Minnesota; Gary Suckow, CEO, Voyager Industries)

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

CH

RIS

MO

RS

E


ore than 130 prospective employees (and, importantly, their parents and

grandparents) toured Alexandria Industries earlier this month as part of their annual Not So Heavy Metal Tour, the company’s annual attempt to interest young people in manufacturing.

The event is hosted annually on the first Saturday in October as part of Manufacturing Month, the long-designated nationwide effort to get manufacturers and their allies to emphasize their contributions to local economies as well as to promote the lucrative, secure and rewarding career opportunities in manufacturing.

Patty Hoffman, marketing and communications specialist at the company says the tours are a natural extension of ongoing marketing to students all year long. This year attendees received a Not So Heavy Metal Tour lanyard, similar to VIP rock concert tickets.

To promote the event, the company circulated 11x17 posters (see sidebar) to high school principals within a fifty-mile radius of Alexandria. They also put posters in storefronts along Alexandria’s main street to appeal to parents or grandparents. The poster promises the event will debunk the myths of manufacturing, that it is backbreaking, requires low-skilled employees, male dominated, dirty, low paying repetitive jobs with limited opportunities.

In addition to attracting high school students, Hoffman says some college students and 20-somethings who were looking for work attended the event.

Hoffman says attendees are “enraptured” by what they discover. “Parents and the students just soak it all

in,” she says.With HR people on hand, Hoffman

said seven potential employees filled out applications.

Hoffman says the tours seem to have a particularly positive effect on parents and grandparents.

“You can tell by the way that they behave at the tour stops,” she says. “We have probably about eight or ten different tour stops and we have presenters at each tour stop. A tour guide walks attendees through the plant (which is in operation), providing overviews about manufacturing in general and about Alexandria Industries in particular.”

Other tour stops include the extrusion press, the tool-and-die room, shipping, and

machining. After they have the tour, they’re invited

to come into the lunchroom and have coffee or lemonade and a cookie, and we visit with them when they’re in there too.

That’s where we get people to fill out applications or ask about their interest in choosing a career or something that would get them to think about working and developing a career in manufacturing.

Hoffman said the tours tend to energize the company’s employees as well, many of whom become volunteer guides and demonstrators for the event. “We get people who come back over and over again. They just really like sharing what makes Alexandria Industries special. There are probably 30 to 40 people who are involved in making this event happen.”

The event is part of a larger outreach effort at Alexandria Industries headed up by Ben Bomstad, one of their corporate trainers. Bomstad typically focuses on tech school relationships, but recently has added high schools to his portfolio – “to catch them when they’re trying to decide what career path to go down, and encourage them to look at manufacturing and get involved with a tech school.”

Rock-and-Roll Manufacturers?Alexandria Industries reaches out to future employees with the Not So Heavy Metal Tour

Rydell Robinson, an extrusion press lead at Alexandria Industries was one of 40 volunteers who helped produce the Heavy Metal event by giving tours or providing demonstrations.

M

ike a lot of small town manufacturers who need to attract

young people to sustain their operations, Steve Cremer realized how young parents wrestled with the continual costs and inconvenient aggravations of finding childcare.

Cremer is the third generation president of Harmony Enterprises, a family owned company that has designed and manufactured balers and compactors for the solid waste and recycling industry since the ‘60s. Situated in the tiny southeast Minnesota town of Harmony, the company employs 65 people in a community of just a few more than a thousand inhabitants. It employs another 10 employees at its sales and service facility in Toulouse, France.

Apart from seeing day care issues as an impediment to keeping young people in town, Harmony’s wellness assessments showed Cremer that many of his employees were stressed about daycare every day.

If they could find daycare, it sometimes required employees to drive great distances and pay premium prices for services that were sometimes unreliable. They would frequently miss work or leave work just to juggle the demands of childcare.

One day earlier this year, Cremer decided to do something about it. He looked out at a building he owned just north of his main plant. Its structure made it unsuitable for manufacturing, but perfect, he realized, as a learning center. He conferred with his wife, who had once operated an in-home daycare facility, and she agreed.

“We’re competing for employees,” he says. “As our business was growing and changing, I saw that we’re fortunate to hire a lot of young people who are really key for us in the future. I thought, that’s going to be a nice benefit for anyone who may be looking at possibly coming to work for us.”

Employees were blown away by the plans. And, as word spread, so was the community. Cremer originally planned to build a facility for 40 children, just

enough to accommodate the employees of Harmony Enterprises. Now, however, he’s increased capacity to 100, to meet the demand in Harmony and surrounding communities. He said Harmony employees will get an additional price break for the service.

“If we can keep these young people here, it keeps them in our schools, it keeps the community younger,” he says. “They’re building houses. It’s a huge benefit for the community as well as our employees. My wife and I saw it as a win/win for us here at Harmony Enterprises and our employees,

but also the community.”Daycare doesn’t affect just the

parents, he adds. “Grandparents get in the middle of that from time to time, so it’s even good for some of our older people.”

Cremer considers his community childcare facility as one more outgrowth of Harmony Enterprise’s long and close ties with its eponymous home town.

Harmony was founded in 1962 to add a local economic engine to augment agriculture. And the community responded, Cremer says. The original company marketed portable ice fishing shelters and a

walking cane that could be made into a folding seat. Local investors bought stock to help set up the business. They created an economic development company that backed SBA loans to build buildings.

“The whole idea of this company was community-based from the very beginning,” Cremer says.

In the mid-70s, the company’s managers innovated a way to address air pollution issues alongside the incineration of cardboard at supermarkets. The company is today considered world leader in the design and manufacturing of solid waste equipment.

In the mid-90s, the company invested in new equipment, new offices, and production area that enabled Harmony to sell products in more than 25 countries worldwide.

Today, Harmony earns 30% of its business from international sales from more than 70 countries. The company purchased Cypress Environment located in Toulouse, France to provide sales and technical support to the European market.

“My grandfather and father came into the business, and we always remembered how we started with the community. Today, the community is aging. We have good jobs, but the biggest problem retaining young people in the community is daycare.”

He may have solved that one.


L

All in the FamilyHarmony Enterprises plans an in-house day care, then expands it for the whole town

Cremer originally planned to build a facility for 40 children, just enough to accommodate the employees of Harmony Enterprises. Now, however, he’s increased capacity to 100, to meet the demand in Harmony and surrounding communities.

he production floor at Bell Manufacturing was already pretty

cramped when word came earlier this year that their biggest customer – already responsible for 90 percent of their sales – expected to increase its order some 30 percent. Time for lean.

The brother and sister management team of Jim and Judy Bell told their story

to an Enterprise Minnesota business event entitled, How to Generate Quick Wins to Reignite Your Lean Journey at the Donaldson Company in Bloomington.

Bell has been a family-owned custom metal fabricator in the Twin Cities since 1965. In 1990, the company started making end tables for furniture retailer Room and Board and gradually expanded, usually at a 7 to 8 percent annual clip until today Room and Board constitutes 90 percent of its business.

“We needed to increase the capacity immediately, so one of the things we did is reevaluate the flow,” Jim says, adding that they were able to accommodate the expected growth through “little tweaks” of lean. “It wasn’t anything major,” he says. “Lean is all about eliminating waste and wasted motion. We tried to make it so the product flowed better through the shop. It was all subtle little tweaks that helped immensely in the flow of the product.

And it worked. The company was able to fill the increased orders by hiring only a few new employees.

He said before lean, Bell’s 80 employees were trying to progress through “hundreds of jobs” on the floor at the same time. The lean process boiled them down to 30 jobs upon the shop floor at a given time.

Said Judy: “Just keeping the machines

busy doesn’t get more products shipped and so we really focused on what it takes to get it shipped.”

“Our productivity has been trending higher, she added. “We don’t have the exact measurements on that, but we kind of track labor, percentage of sales and just product mix and all those variations. The overall trend is that the productivity is higher and our costs have been lower.”

The next challenge, according to Jim, is to keep the lean progress when the company moves this spring to a new 130,000 foot plan in northeast Minneapolis.

“There is a challenge. Anything we did we’re going to transfer over to the new facility. And once you get in and get set up, we’ll probably do another lean initiative to make sure we’re doing things correctly. Even the little things can mean big changes. We have to make sure that we remain vigilant.”


T

Cramped and GrowingBell Manufacturing had to plan for huge growth in an already crowded plant

gpmlaw.com | Minneapolis

St. Cloud | Washington, DC

True results stem from true collaborations.

Strategic consultation, Branding,

Advertising & creative,

Web strategy,

Design & development,

Online marketing

Public and social relations

GROWTH.POWERED BY RISDALL.

Risdall.com

Jim and Judy Bell

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

MA

RK

TR

OC

KM

AN

Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen


Minnesota Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen recently cohosted a town meeting with Center

of the American Experiment, a Minneapolis-based policy center to showcase how manufacturers, educators and community leaders in Alexandria have collaborated to protect the city from problems related to Minnesota’s emerging “skills gap.”

What put the skills gap on your radar?Nobody disagrees that

manufacturers are crucially important to their home communities, particularly in Greater Minnesota. Half of Minnesota’s 7,400 manufacturers operate in Greater Minnesota. In most cases, they form the bedrock of many Minnesota communities. They offer high-wage, high-skill jobs that create economic opportunity and stability. But manufacturing’s impact on jobs goes deeper than that. Each manufacturing job supports 1.9 jobs in other parts of the economy. That means that 33 percent of all Minnesota jobs are directly or indirectly supported by manufacturing. But here’s the rub: There are more than 5,000 open manufacturing jobs in Minnesota today.

Something like 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled in the U.S. over the next decade. But with baby boomers retiring, and fewer young people gaining these skills, about two million of those jobs will go unfilled. And this will affect Minnesotans in a big way. Minnesota leads the nation in the demand for highly-skilled workers. By 2018, Minnesota will tie for first place among states in the percentage of jobs requiring some post-secondary education.

Why is Alexandria a model for other cities?

Alexandria has always appreciated its manufacturers and has acted to address this issue. Manufacturers

account for 18 percent of our local jobs. And the skills gap has been widening in Alexandria, just as it has all across Minnesota and the rest of the country.

Manufacturers and community leaders worked together to help ensure that its manufacturers would have access to the next generation of employees and that they will be adequately trained to work the high tech equipment in their increasingly sophisticated operations. And here’s a bonus, it didn’t require the government.

But rather than sitting back and admiring the problem, Alexandria’s manufacturers did something about it.

What did they do?They mobilized. In 2010, when

the Alexandria school district was preparing for a $65 million bond issue to fund a new high school, local manufacturers actively worked on behalf of the referendum. They helped organize community groups, economic development activists, elected officials, and educators on behalf of the school – and they made sure that it would include a state-of-the-art design-build manufacturing lab. Just as important, they put skin in the game. They helped raise some $6 million in private donations toward the school even before the referendum was placed on the ballot. And they donated expensive high-tech equipment to outfit the lab and they pledged to give employees paid time off to teach students how to operate it. They helped encourage the local economic development commission to fund an employee to work as a fulltime liaison between the schools and manufacturers.

And a major part of the new school is the massive, high-tech design-build lab, showcased for all to see behind a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall window. Alexandria’s manufacturers used the school campaign to subtly remind fellow citizens of their strong economic contributions to their community, and

E

INNOVATIONS

Bill Ingebrigtsen is a member of the Minnesota Senate. He represents District 8, which includes portions of Douglas and Otter Tail counties in the west central part of the state. He was a Douglas County deputy sheriff from 1972–1991. He ran for and was elected sheriff in 1990. He was re-elected in 1994, 1998, and 2002, serving in that position from 1991–2007. He was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and was re-elected in 2010 and 2012. He currently serves as the Assistant Minority Leader.

the lab serves a constant notice that there are solid career opportunities that don’t necessarily require a four-year degree.

What did you learn in the town meeting that might be valuable for people in other parts of the state?

Alexandria’s manufacturers became activists. Manufacturers who sit back and wait for someone else to solve the problems shouldn’t be surprised when their communities and prospective employees don’t appreciate their economic impact or comprehend the potential for long, stable, satisfying careers within their walls. The Alexandria model should show them that there is a fulfilling payback to community leadership.

Four Questions

TRAINING


EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was primarily adapted from presentations made

at Enterprise Minnesota’s Statewide CEO Council one-day event October 26 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest.

The event was open exclusively to members of Enterprise Minnesota’s 12 regional peer councils.

Attendees heard from four of Enterprise Minnesota’s top consultants on issues ranging from leadership, strategy, the new ISO standards, and continuous improvement. Joe Mulford, the recently-appointed president of Pine Technical & Community College, provided the luncheon keynote.

The event concluded with a wide-ranging panel, moderated by Bob Kill, president and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota. It included Dane Anderson, president & CEO of FAST Global Solutions, Verne McPherson, CEO of Tolerance Masters, David Rhode, plant operations manager with Detroit Diesel Remanufacturing, LLC and Mulford.

1. UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGE

FIX THE GAPPine Tech’s Mulford outlines seven insights to address the skills gap

The solution to the skills gap won’t be an easy fix, according to Joe Mulford, the newly appointed president of Pine Technical and Community College. It will likely require that manufacturers collaborate on a concerted long-term strategy that requires proactive individual initiative.

In his previous role as system director for education-industry partnerships at MnSCU, Mulford developed a strong reputation for representing the interests of manufacturers within that college system, particularly regarding the skills gap.

Novel Strategies to Address the Skills Gap

A new generation of qualified employees isn’t going to magically appear. Savvy manufacturers

are preparing to do more with less.

TRAINING


He says the pathway that gets manufacturing in the right direction involves seven steps.

1. UNDERSTAND THAT THE PROBLEM IS COMPETITIVE. Manufacturing isn’t the only industry getting thumped by the demographic shortage of workers. “Fundamentally, it’s pinching everyone,” Mulford says, adding that manufacturing is currently 41st on a list of business sectors that need employees, including retail, healthcare, IT, personal care, nursing, office jobs, childcare, and others.

“People who have the skill sets that you’re looking for have a lot of options,” he says. “If they’re somebody who has the intellectual capacity to be an engineer, they can just as well be an airline pilot, or a salesperson or some sort of medical technician.”

More to the point, MnSCU doesn’t have sufficient capacity to solve the problem merely by adding more coursework, he adds. The demographics of the millennial generation just aren’t there. “I could never turn out enough graduates from our college to fill every vacancy in the region,” he says. “I wish I could.”

2. THINK STRATEGY, NOT TACTICS. Mulford cautions manufacturers to remember the difference between a plan and a strategy. “A lot of people have a plan to solve an issue on a particular day or in a particular economic cycle, but they just don’t have the longer-term strategy,” he says.

He advises companies to take a longer term approach than traditional start-stop attitudes. “Companies get involved when there’s a crisis. They want to add a third shift or something, and they need a bunch of people. Then as soon as their needs are met, maybe it softens. The reality is it’s different this time, because the demographics have fundamentally shifted in our country and in our region.”

3. SHARPEN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS. Manufacturers can better compete for the attention of students by building personal relationships at two-year schools, Mulford says. In his experience, savvy manufacturers get on a school’s radar when they take an extra step beyond merely calling to post a job.

“It’s not complicated and it’s not expensive,” he says. “(They) come over with a box of pizza and talk to the class at night. They send over a production engineer. They invite the classes for a tour,” he said. “Most employers that I’ve worked with over the years have had effective strategies around that. They are very transparent and very predictable.”

4. ACT AS AN INDUSTRY. Manufacturers need to think beyond their own company needs and even the needs of their regions: They need to market their industry statewide, according to Mulford. “It is branding, getting people interested in manufacturing, first of all (and) encouraging them to get the right skills,” he says.

5. CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES. Schools simply don’t have the capacity to graduate enough people to meet the needs of employers, Mulford says. As they develop their forward-looking strategies, manufacturers should help facilitate apprenticeship programming or internships. “You can’t just think about going down to the college and hiring graduates, or putting an ad in the paper, or having some internal training,” he says.

6. CREATIVE TUITION. Tuition reimbursement models, while generous, are too confusing and bureaucratic for some students, according to Mulford. In his experience many students are not sure whether they want to be a carpenter or a machine tool operator. Their decision, he says, is sometimes no more complicated than being attracted to a specific grant that keeps tuition down. “They’ll pick those careers,” he says.

7. PLAN TO BE AWESOME. Reputation matters, Mulford says, both for your company and your industry. “There is too much competition out there for human talent,” he says. “Good isn’t good enough. You have to be awesome.” You have to have people refer to you as awesome, just as you do for your products.

“In higher ed, we talk about an alma mater experience,” Mulford says. “Are people going to drive around with your bumper sticker after they graduate? Are you an awesome employer?”

2. PERFECT YOUR STRATEGY.

IF WE’RE NOT GROWING, WE’RE ERODINGThe optimal paths to successful strategic planning.

The best strategic plans for manufacturers, according to Enterprise Minnesota’s Mary Connor, begin with an intelligent scan of the company’s context.

Connor is a senior member of Enterprise Minnesota’s consultant team, with deep experience in business growth strategies.

“We need to take a moment to scan the environment and make a plan for our growth. Because if we’re not growing, we’re eroding,” she says.

Those scans should include:

• An internal scan assesses the company’s knowledge, skills, and abilities; it evaluates management systems and efforts as continuous improvement.

• An industry scan examines new entrants into the industry, suppliers, buyers, product substitutes, and gauges the intensity of rivalries.

• A competitive scan identifies, ranks and rates competitors. • An environment scan assesses political, environmental, social,

and technological factors.

Experienced planners will use these data-driven scans to identify high probability paths to strategic growth, Connor says. These paths typically include some version of growing the core business, viewing customers from different angles, and/or considering alternative sales channels.

Growing the core business, she says, requires an internal focus on systems, people, and continuous improvement -- or it might mean abandoning the present core for more profitable options. “We may even have to abandon what our core business is if it’s obsolete and move more quickly,” she says.

Connor’s overview of planning also includes identifying opportunities to introduce new products to existing customers. “We’re going to segment our customers now because not all of them are going to buy our new product,” she says. This should entail seeking a fresh analysis of customers’ buying patterns, paying


closer attention to high margin customers and finding different ways to accommodate low margin customers, such as the Internet. “If they’re treating us like a commodity, maybe they want to buy like it is a commodity.”

Another strategy in Connor’s view is to offer current products to new customers. “This is appealing, particularly when your core business is throwing off some cash,” she says. This could mean recruiting a direct sales force, pursuing new markets, or maybe exporting.

An important component in the strategic thinking is to plan for execution. “We need a plan for growth and we need a plan for integration,” Connor says. “We’re going to choose a combination of this in our plan at the high level. How are we going to grow, and then we’re going to build some organizational capabilities?” Failed plans, she says, did not contemplate workforce, facilities or systems.

In the end, Connor prescribes five best bets for strategic planners.

• Authorship and ownership. Connor advises clients to encourage extensive participation at the beginning of the planning process because “authorship and ownership are connected.” Employees can’t follow a plan if it rests only in the CEO’s head. “You wonder, how come my people can’t follow me?” she says. “They don’t know the direction you’re going.”

• Shared communication. “This is a group process. It’s not a spectator sport. We need to come up with a significant and doable call to action,” she says, adding that managers should sustain the communications process. “Get up here at least once a month and talk about your strategy to your leadership team members.”

• Progress reporting. Connor prescribes bringing efficiency to reporting progress. “My favorite progress reporting is red, yellow, green,” she says. “If it’s green, we don’t need to talk about it at the strategy meeting. If it’s yellow, what do we need to get on track here? If it’s red, what resources do we need? That’s the one

we need to focus on.”• Empowerment. Empowerment and accountability are keys to

successful strategies, Connor says. “They go together,” she says. “They’re in lock step. Otherwise, you’ve got people running willy-nilly.” In the final analysis, Connor says, a company’s strategic planners

get to use the strategic planning process to decide what they’re going to give up in their core business, what needs to stay the same, and what needs to change. “But this comes with responsibilities,” she adds. They need to believe in their decisions, discuss their plans and convince others to share their vision, while anticipating resistance. “Convincing your folks back home is sometimes one of the harder dilemmas that you have to face. You need to be able to respond with speed and to keep your company resilient, remembering that every problem has a way out.”

Her final word: “Execute your plan. Don’t let the bozos get you down.”

3. FOCUS ON CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

DOUBLE DOWN ON PROCESS DEVELOPMENTImproving output is a combination of art and science

The leadership team of a particular company showed up at 6 a.m. one Tuesday morning to capture information before third shift employees clocked out and went home. As they walked between pieces of critical equipment and from work area to work area, one manager noticed that a particular piece of critical equipment had experienced an issue with quality over night.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked the operator.“Well, you know it started out OK,” she said, but during

the middle of the shift, it started producing a lot of scrap.” She described how troubleshooting couldn’t identify any obvious problems, and neither could the maintenance person she called up for a second opinion.

She then wondered if the problem was due to faulty raw material. They changed it out and the scrap problem disappeared.

“I knew you’d be walking around today,” she told the manager, so she had recorded the lot number and a sample of the material and gave it to the purchasing manager. The manager thanked the operator for doing a good job, asked few follow-up questions and moved on.

To Greg Langfield, this four-minute conversation perfectly illustrates how effective managers combine process improvements with engaged employees to produce seamless lean improvements.

Langfield is a business growth consultant for Enterprise Minnesota who specializes in talent development, lean enterprise, and ISO quality management. His expertise ranges from enterprise-wide lean transformations to targeted improvements including various lean workshops and lean certifications.

He deconstructs that leadership visit into various positive components. First off, he says, the operator had some type of problem solving skills. She knew how to troubleshoot that piece of equipment. Then, she knew to bring in the maintenance shop. And third, she kept a scrap, recorded the lot number and passed it on.

“One of the things we’re after here for daily improvements is


“We need to take a moment to scan the

environment and make a plan for our growth.

Because if we’re not growing, we’re eroding,”

Connor says.

looking for ideas that employees can implement. We’re not focused on just the ideas. We’re looking for the action that results from it,” he said.

Langfield says that the anecdote also demonstrated purposeful leadership. In the example, the leadership team actually took time to visit the production floor, where the work was being done. “It could be in engineering. It could be customer service. It could be anyplace in your organization,” he said.

The point is to match up how leadership and employees see problems in compatibly similar ways. “How well do they match up there?” Langfield asks. “What is really happening out here? What is really going on in this process? The whole point is to go out and see and learn what’s going on.”

Langfield also applauds how the manager used strategically artful questioning to find information. “Even though they could see that the quality was out of control, they didn’t start by asking, ‘Why was quality bad?’ They started with, ‘Just tell me about your day? How’s it going?’ The leaders focused on engaging the employee by looking at the issue from her perspective. How we ask the questions is more important than just being there. If we start off with why, we put them on the defensive right away.” In essence, they asked her first how she would describe and fix the problem. “Our goal is, through engagement, to get them to solve problems. If you walk out there and tell them what to do, they’re not going to learn how to solve problems.”

Another lesson from the anecdote is how the team had empowered the employee to know she had automatic permission to make an improvement. “The operator didn’t need to run up the flagpole and say, ‘Hey, is this needed or not?’” Langfield says. “We are focused on developing employee’s problem-solving skills. There are things that they can solve that we want them to solve. We want them to make their day better.”

Let’s talk about what it means to have purposeful leadership here. One is just like daily improvements, we’re focusing on the process. It’s just as important for leadership to understand value add and non-value as it is for employees. You have to go out there and see, “What am I seeing? What is the employee seeing? How well do they match up there?” You’re also looking for value add and non-value add. Your takeaway is, “What is really happening out here? What is really going on in this process?” The whole point is to go out and see and learn what’s going on there.

4. FOCUS ON PEOPLE

GENERATE NEW LEADERSLeadership has evolved beyond the traditional command-and-control model

Most manufacturers agree that developing leaders is an important way to grow their businesses, yet few do anything about it. Pat Voyles, a leadership consultant at Enterprise Minnesota, likes to quote a recent report that discovered less than one third of U.S. companies say they’ve identified critical roles and talent segments based on their business goals. Even fewer companies – less than 10 percent – are at a stage where talent management is actually part of their business planning process.

Voyles devotes most of her time at Enterprise Minnesota to help manufacturers realize and adapt to the evolving roles of leaders

within their companies. “Our attitudes drive our behavior,” she says. “Our behavior is

what we say and how we say things, and what we do and how we do things. Behavior drives actions, actions drive results, and results drive performance. If we don’t like our performance, we might need to take a look back at our results and the actions that we take.”

Leadership requirements in modern manufacturing have evolved beyond the traditional command-and-control model, in which decisions are made at the top and implemented by underlings within the organization, Voyles says.

“That worked really well in situations where people don’t have to think,” she says. That’s no longer the situation, as technology, demographics and workplace culture have all combined to demand a different leadership mindset.

“We’re starting to see that the work is changing and things are becoming more automated,” she says. “Things are becoming replaced with robotics.”

In addition, today’s workforce often includes four generations of people working side by side, each with their own attitudes, motivations, and work styles. As boomers prepare to retire, millenials are becoming leaders and managers. In addition, workflow is changing, requiring different skills, competencies, and experience.

That evolving workplace requires a different kind of leadership, Voyles says: “We need people who can think, people who can make decisions, people who can solve problems, and resolve conflict. We need to develop leaders at all levels.”

Voyles describes a “true leader” in this new environment as someone who influences the thinking and behaviors of others, who challenges employees to tackle things outside their comfort zones. “A true leader is someone who puts others before himself and focuses on growing them to become greater and accomplish more than they’ve been able to do,” she says.

Smart companies also devote time to considering how well leadership aligns to business strategies, Voyles says. “Companies spend a lot of money to put together strategic plans, but things don’t always go as planned. Aligning that business strategy and leadership is maybe easier said than done.”

She suggests four paths to correcting this.• Identify critical roles and talent segments based on your business

goals. • Develop formal training plans for critical roles in your high

potentials. • Provide formal coaching or mentoring for critical roles in those

emerging leaders. • Create succession plans or career paths for your top talent that are

based on your business goals. Voyles recommends that companies devote time and energies to

developing the art and science of leadership. “We won’t become good leaders just by reading books or watching videos,” she says. “We have to try things; we have to practice things.”

One way to accomplish this, she says, is to adapt the thinking of Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, two leading authorities on leadership, and co-authors of The Leadership Challenge. She endorses their five-step plan for developing leaders.

1. MODELING THE WAY. Do you do what you say you’re going to do? Do you lead by example? “If you say that you’re going to do something, can people trust and rely on you and depend on you, that you’re going to follow through and do what you said you’re going


to do?” Voyles says. “That’s the way to build trust and credibility with people the organization.”

2. INSPIRE A SHARED VISION. A lot of leaders have a vision in their head, but they don’t always share it, Voyles says, so people don’t know exactly what it is. As a result, they don’t inspire people to move from the current state to the future state.

3. CHALLENGE THE PROCESS. Leaders help people get outside their comfort zone and ask them to do things that they might not feel comfortable doing. When they do that, it helps them to grow and develop.

4. ENABLE OTHERS TO ACT. People who are empowered are probably going to be energetic, enthusiastic and motivated, Voyles says. Companies can undermine this empowerment by prescribing how they are supposed to act. “It’s not very empowering, it’s not very motivational.”

5. ENCOURAGE THE HEART. Effective leaders make their employees feel like the heroes, Voyles says. “They don’t try to take the credit for something that’s well done,” she says. “They put the people in front of themselves. They set small goals and accomplishments so people can see those small wins along the way. That’s what motivates people.”

5. STRENGTHEN MANAGEMENT

ISO IS A MANAGEMENT SYSTEMCompanies agree that ISO certification makes them better companiesManufacturers who will strategically address the skills gap

through a strong management system increasingly rely on ISO 9001, according Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant Kent Myhrman.

Manufacturers sometimes may not initially appreciate ‘management system’ as a phrase, he says, but it makes more sense when they consider the interrelated functions they have to manage and the advantage of having a system for managing them.

ISO 9000 was first introduced a couple decades ago to tackle quality issues. Today, it’s evolved into a business system, a management system. In fact, today ISO 9001 is the most widely accepted management system, according to John Connelly, Enterprise Minnesota’s director of consulting. He says manufacturers should rely on ISO “because it provides a well-thought out infrastructure for how a successful organization is managed, not just a successful manufacturer but how a successful organization is managed.”

Connelly says that ISO-certified manufacturers mostly agree with this, but sometimes they reach the conclusion by an indirect route. Manufacturers initially pursue ISO certification for one of three reasons, he says: First, a significant customer requires it. Second, it is a business development tool; prospective customers require it. And third, they want the efficiencies that come by operating under an ISO management system.

The overwhelming majority of manufacturers initially look

to ISO because of customer driven motivations, Connelly says. But, after working in an ISO environment “virtually every one of them will say ‘My business is better off because we did this. We will be stronger. We are better positioned to grow. We’re better at measuring, communicating, and adapting because we operate an ISO system.’”

Connelly says the newest iteration of ISO incorporates process, effectiveness, and risk -- all key elements.

Manufacturers are also finding a clearer connection between ISO and lean process improvements. In fact, Connelly says, “I think the two of them belong together. ISO is about a system that thrives on being effective and that comes from using best practices. Lean is a methodology to be able to identify best practices and continuously improve them.

“That’s really the focal point, that we strive for best practice,” he says. “Lean helps us figure out what that practice is and ISO provides the system that demands it, prioritizes it, orders it, helps us sustain it.”

Connelly says that Myhrman and the other ISO specialists at Enterprise Minnesota will spend time with clients synthesizing the requirements of ISO. A popular activity, he says, will be to develop gap audits that identify the holes between the current system and what ISO 9001:2015 will expect. “There are 7 main elements worth digging into and saying, ‘How do you handle these things today? How will the management system expect them to be handled?’”

How to pursue the upgrade is a significant business decision. Connelly says that auditors will be competent and broadly available by the summer of 2016. “So our advice to clients is if you’re ISO 9001:2008 right now, the appropriate place for you to pursue an upgrade would be at the time of recertification,” Connelly says. “If you’re just starting, if you’re making a decision to pursue ISO, then pursue 2015 right now.”


TRAINING

Leadership requirements in modern manufacturing have evolved beyond the traditional command-and-control model, in which decisions are made at the top and implemented by underlings within the organization, Voyles says.


Lakeshirts has used a disciplined sense of

their marketplace, well-timed acquisitions,

and a sense of irreverence to create an

apparel company that does $60 million.

orget Thomas Wolfe. Detroit Lakes natives Mark Fritz and Mike

Hutchinson have proved you can go home again – and do quite well for

yourself (and your community) along the way.

Thirty years ago, the two 19-year old boyhood pals founded Lakeshirts,

a company that would eventually dominate the U.S. market for custom-decorated

apparel. If you ever bought a souvenir shirt commemorating a vacation visit,

chances are good that it was designed and manufactured in their 275,000-foot

production facility just off of Highway 10 in Detroit Lakes.

In 1984, the fledgling entrepreneurs started printing shirts in Mark’s parents’

basement to sell on Detroit Lakes’ mile-long beach. “At that time,” according to

Lakeshirt’s in-house history, “the company consisted of two teenagers, a couple

dogs, a homemade plywood printer, two secondhand kitchen ovens, and cookie

sheets for curing the ink. The product line included a handful of screen-print

CloseTO

F

designs that were sold at the small beach store and custom artwork for

local resorts, restaurants and businesses. We didn’t have many rules back then other than no beer until after 8 pm, no Frank Zappa while customers were around and lastly, no leaving until the orders were out the door.”

The first-year company brought in about $13,000. Since then, the two entrepreneurs have used a disciplined sense of their own marketplace, well-timed acquisitions, and a sense of irreverence to create a company whose 435 employees last year produced more than two million t-shirts and sweatshirts, bringing in some $60 million in sales.

And their achievements haven’t sacrificed their original sense of owning a fun place to work: “house dogs” still roam the offices, and the quickest route from the second floor down to the company’s new cafeteria is to slide down a twisting water park-style plastic slide.

The two partners still live about 10 doors apart in the same Shore Drive neighborhood they grew up in. “People say we’ve come a long way,” Fritz says. “Hutch moved down one door, right next door to his parents eventually. I’m about five doors down. We’re still in the same neighborhood, within a block.”

Fritz and Hutchinson launched Lakeshirts while still in college, both initially at St. John’s. Fritz had his eyes on dentistry, like his father. Hutchinson, a self-described “English and history man” had contemplated a career in law, “for about five minutes.”


Owners Mark Fritz (left) and Mike Hutchinson

founded Lakeshirts as college students in 1984,

selling custom apparel to local resorts.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

S B

Y J

ER

EM

Y P

ET

RIC

K

But at a more basic level, both were born entrepreneurs. “I’d always had these businesses, from selling worms to bait shops to painting houses,” Fritz says. Their first collaboration began while the two were barely in high school, with a lawn maintenance business. Fritz launched the company on his own, but had no trouble luring Hutchinson away from his summer job performing menial tasks at a local mink farm. “We had a million lawns,” Fritz remembers. “We made more money than just about all our friends, and set our own hours.”

Fritz transferred to Montana State, where he began to re-evaluate dentistry. “I like this business stuff.” He observed how Ocean Pacific seemed to be cornering the market on custom apparel.

“We know how to do t-shirts,” he concluded, with a bit of bravado. “This is a no-brainer, this should be a billion dollar business in a week.”

“That’s the beauty of being young,” he adds, “you think anything’s possible.”

Working an initial customer base of local resorts, the two set up base in Fritz’s boyhood basement where his grandfather, an electrician, wired a couple ovens up against a wall and we cooked everything on cookie sheets.

In the summer of 1984, they converted an old resort cabin into a retail space and did $13,000 in business. They returned to

college, and started selling customized apparel to dorms and other college-related customers.

“They were horrible little orders,” Fritz recalls. “They’re 30 pieces, 20 pieces, and decisions being made by committees, but it worked for us.”

Relying on the resort business the company grew steadily, reaching $3 million in revenue by the mid-‘90s.

A turning point in the business may have occurred in 1997 – depending on who you talk to – when Hutchinson attended a trade show in Atlanta, looking for machines to help Lakeshirts capitalize on the flourishing demand for embroidered shirts.

In Fritz’s telling, Hutchinson flew to a trade show in Atlanta with enough bank financing to acquire three new embroidery machines at $100,000 each.

Hutchinson called in from the show: “They gave us a great deal. I just bought seven,” he told his partner.

“Seven!” Fritz remembers saying. “How are we going to pay for it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think we need to pay right away,” Hutchinson said.

For his part, Hutchinson recalls seeing only upside. “I’m great at buying machinery,” he says. The banking issue, he remembers, “never really got in my way much. They always lived with it.”

What he didn’t tell Fritz right away, was that he had also negotiated to purchase two more by the end of the year. “I knew we would need them, and we did.” Hutchinson said.

His instincts were spot on. Their embroidery capabilities accounted for 85 percent of their business.

Concurrent with the arrival of the new embroidery machines was the arrival of


Lakeshirts’

management

maintains an

informal culture:

“house dogs” still

roam the offices,

and the quickest

route from the

second floor down to

the company’s new

cafeteria is to slide

down a twisting

water park-style

plastic slide.

The company’s 29 in-house graphic artists produce something like 10,000 customized designs each year.


Michelle Daggett who was recruited to become HR manager for what was then a 100-person company. She was immediately confronted with an extraordinary first assignment: find the 60 embroiderers the company now needed to operate the new equipment – 20 people for each of three shifts in a 24-hour operation.

Today Daggett is operations manager for the company. She remembers today that she looked at it as requiring more computer skills that sewing. “You have to be able to thread the needles and that type of thing,” she says.

To make sure they found the right fit, Daggett invited applicants to test out the equipment through a week-long training session between 4-8 PM daily. “Some people would bow out after two days and say hey this just isn’t for me.”

Strategic Acquisitions. Lakeshirts’ outlook and margins benefited from two strategic acquisitions over the years.

The first acquisition was of a small Minneapolis-based vendor that dyed fabric for Lakeshirts.

The acquisition was not motivated so much by issues about dye, as about turnaround times, according to Fritz. Lakeshirts’ longtime market differentiator involved delivery times. “That’s how we grew,” Fritz says. “It wasn’t necessarily that we had better art or better products.” While most competitors offered product turnaround of three or four weeks, Lakeshirts from its beginning invested in capabilities that enabled them to promise two weeks or less.

The dye vendor didn’t share the same passion for quick turnaround times. Its promises of three to four week turnarounds invariably ended up at 8 to 12 weeks, frequently leaving Lakeshirts’ production facility strapped for material. “We were having a real tough time staying in stock on our best selling items,” Fritz recalls.

Knowing that Lakeshirts was responsible for about 85 percent of their garment business, Hutchinson and Fritz gave the company an ultimatum. “We’re going to get into this business ourselves. Either you sell to us, so that we can start investing in machines and people, or we’ll start our own from scratch.

“We did it to protect our supply chain,” he adds.

The net positive effect was not immediate, eventually costing about twice what they estimated, “but we learned a lot of things,” Fritz says.

“We thought we were buying the knowledge,” he adds. In the end Lakeshirts ended up selling most or all of the dye formulas in favor of their own.

The acquisition enabled the company to vertically integrate the dye process into their production capabilities, enabling them to shorten production times, control costs and improve quality.

The next acquisition enabled the company to move into the market for collegiate sports apparel, a niche that is dominated by exclusive existing relationships and intricate licensing agreements.

A couple early efforts fizzled. “Our

product offering may have been a click or two off,” Fritz says. “We had the decoration infrastructure and firepower, but we didn’t have exactly the right products.” In addition, the company lacked a competitive number of licenses and an adequate distribution network to take on the new niche.

That changed 10 years ago when Lakeshirts bought Step Ahead Sportswear, a company in Lawrence, Kansas that was earning about $2 million each year in the quick-turnaround hot market of what Fritz calls the “if win” business. If a team won a particular championship, they could churn celebratory merchandise as quickly as any competitor.

The acquisition worked well for both

companies. Step Ahead was essentially a virtual company without its own plant that competed in the feast-or-famine hot market by mobilizing outside vendors.

On the other hand, Step Ahead had a hundred-plus collegiate licenses and NCAA credentials to produce apparel for the Final Four or the Frozen Four, the College World Series or football championships. But, Fritz says, they focused on the hot markets of championships and other accomplishments. “They weren’t selling any everyday stuff.”

Fritz estimates it took about a year to realized significant gains from the acquisition. “Again, our products were a little off kilter. I don’t think we had the right people, or even the right product offering. We wrestled with introducing a lot of our resort-type products in the market and the market didn’t respond to that.”

But the collegiate market eventually worked out well. Today it accounts for a cool $20 million, about a third of Lakeshirts’ annual revenue.

Differentiators. Lakeshirts keeps a keen eye on localized trends, according to Fritz. The company’s 29 on-staff graphic artists produce something like 10,000 customized designs each year, he says, which are not just creative but oriented to the tastes of regional markets. “We systematize going out into the marketplace and seeing what’s unique and different,” he says. “We understand what sells in Sanibel Island is going to be different in Jackson Hole, and different in Hawaii.”

Under Daggett, the company has developed a compelling emphasis on quality and continuous improvement. Each week she chairs a quality assessment meeting for 35 employees that centers on a key performance indicator (KPI) board that measures performance in dollars.

The board analyzes key performance issues for the week alongside 52-week rolling averages that measure errors – in dollar terms. The meeting, Daggett says, involves everyone from “owners to line development people.”

And sometimes, she adds, it will even include customers.

“They’ve been very impressed that we care about each one of those orders,” she says, “because some companies might just say, fine we’ll send it back and they never know if they’re going to get that same error again.”

Daggett says since the meetings began in 2014, the company’s error rate has been cut in half.

Each week Michelle Daggett chairs a quality assessment meeting for 35 employees that centers on a key performance indicator (KPI) board that measures performance in dollars.

SavvySTRATEGIST

or all of the issues a manufacturer faces, Mary Connor has the experience to help. Time spent working on the floor of a major

computer manufacturer, rising from expediter to proposal manager? Check. Time spent managing the finances of a family-owned business? Check. Time spent as controller of a nonprofit institution? And time spent advising diverse companies on quality improvement, strategy, and leadership? Check, check, and check.

With this diverse range of experience, Connor views her role as an Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant as a capstone to her rich, vibrant career. This experience also provides fodder for her consulting at the many businesses that have prospered thanks to her wise guidance.

Connor’s experience gives her the chops—and the conviction—to give unfettered advice to the C-suite and the ability to step in the middle of sometimes sticky dynamics at family-owned companies. It’s also why manufacturers across Minnesota request her assistance with their problem-solving and long-range planning.

Over the years Connor has become

well known to executives as a facilitator of Enterprise Minnesota’s CEO Peer Councils, making her a reliable, trusted resource for hashing out a multitude of issues. And when manufacturers want to examine the big picture and consider major shifts in strategy, Connor brings her time-tested proficiency and arsenal of skills to the table.

Connor is devoted to her work, loves what she does, and thrives on helping manufacturers change and grow. She knows she will complete her career in this role at Enterprise Minnesota. That understanding gives her the freedom to be candid with executives—who often aren’t used to being told the stark truth—and the commitment to continuing operating at a high level.

“This is my last gig. This is it,” says Connor. “This is my capstone work, and I treat it as such, and with respect. I want to go out with a lot of integrity.”

Even with 15 years under her belt at Enterprise Minnesota, Connor still is infectiously enthusiastic about her work and always is eager to dive into projects. “I just get excited when someone says, ‘I’ve got these issues. Can you help me


FBusiness growth consultant Mary Connor sets her

focus on the big picture

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

S B

Y J

ER

EM

Y P

ET

RIC

KBy Suzy Frisch

STRATEGISTSTRATEGIST

SavvySTRATEGIST


Connor views her role as an Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant as a capstone to her rich, vibrant career.

STRATEGISTSTRATEGIST

with them?’” she notes. “I’ll be honest, it’s always on my mind. I’m constantly thinking about these companies. I want to do the best for them, and I really care.”

That caring is apparent to Connor’s co-workers, clients, and the CEOs who belong to the peer councils she facilitates. John Connelly, director of consulting at Enterprise Minnesota, has worked with Connor since she came on board as a business specialist in 2000. He is continually taken with her ability to bring clarity to complicated problems and communicate effectively with clients.

Connor especially shines when working with manufacturers on strategy and their financial health. “Most companies know they should have a long-term view and organized set of thoughts, but they wrestle with how to pull it all together,” Connelly says. “Mary has been able to do that with smaller companies that might have shied away from having an organized effort.”

Around Enterprise Minnesota and with her clients, Connor is known for her ability to have frank but respectful conversations with key leaders, Connelly adds. Plus, “she’s energetic and she works hard at these things. She’s passionate about people’s businesses and their successes, and she’s engaging. Mary is good at asking hard questions and doing discovery. She’s good at digging into the complexities of these things and how people interact in them.”

BUILDING EXPERIENCE Connor has been observing and asking hard questions since her first day on the job at Univac, creator of some of the country’s first stored-program computers. After high school in Rush City, Minnesota, where she grew up on the family farm, Connor made her way to the big city for work. Her first position was on the factory floor, and her bosses quickly noticed that she was a high-potential employee. They kept giving her more and more opportunities to shine.

Connor took full advantage of Univac’s tuition reimbursement program, attending night school at the University of Minnesota while working full-time. With perseverance, Connor earned degrees in business administration and business education, while working her way up from expediter to cost accountant then proposal manager. “They wanted to see if I would float or sink, and I kept floating,” Connor says. “I learned a lot working at a large company and about manufacturing.

Ultimately I figured out that it was what I loved, and I wanted to get back into it.”

That took some time and other job experiences, though. When Connor and her husband had their son, she took maternity leave, and then took the opportunity to pursue an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the U. If that wasn’t enough to juggle, the couple had bought her childhood home and moved back to Rush City. So she was helping raise cattle on the farm and commuting to the Twin Cities on weekends for graduate school.

After finishing her MBA, Connor spent five years as controller of St. Catherine

University in St. Paul. The small, women’s college was a sharp contrast to the 10,000-employee Univac, but Connor found the mostly female atmosphere refreshing. Plus, she got to live vicariously through students’ more traditional college experience, and she enjoyed running the financial side of the institution.

Connor’s early years working on the shop floor—where she was one of few women—provided excellent training for her time working at another mostly male company. She oversaw the finances and pitched in where needed at the family-owned mechanical contracting business her husband started with a partner. At Midwest Fire Protection, Connor gained worlds of insight into the challenges and benefits of working at family-owned businesses. “There is a privilege that comes with owning

a company, and there is a huge sacrifice as well,” she notes. “There’s always a dichotomy between those two issues.”

The couple had planned to work for a few more years, then retire to northern Minnesota. But life had other plans. Her husband grew ill and died; Connor sold her share of the business to his partner. She then found an excellent match for her skills at Enterprise Minnesota in 2000. Connor started as a business specialist, gaining the opportunity to synthesize and share all of the knowledge and experience she gained throughout her career.

“I had worked in large manufacturing,

in a family-owned business, and at a not-for-profit, and I said to myself, ‘I have all that experience, so I can do it.’ You never know what your past prepares you for until you get there,” Connor says. “This job really uses my skills. I was able to bring my business acumen and a care for and understanding of family-owned businesses and manufacturing companies.”

SHARING EXPERIENCE When Connor isn’t consulting with companies on their strategic planning, she leads four CEO Peer Councils for Enterprise Minnesota. These groups meet monthly over the course of many years, providing executives with an opportunity to bond, build trust, and discuss problems affecting their companies. Connor also arranges speakers and broaches timely


Connor is successful in engaging everyone from the C-suite to middle management and team members working on the shop floor.

topics that allow participants to learn from each other and tackle common challenges. The councils might address such issues as conflict with a sibling co-owner, health insurance, or pursuing a new sales channel.

Floe International President Don VanderMey met Connor when she led his peer council and was immediately impressed. “Even though she talked maybe 10 percent of the time, everything she said had a lot of merit and was important. Everyone had a lot of respect for her input and opinion,” he adds. “Mary has a pretty wide array of experience, especially in the financial area of business, so she’s got a good combination of understanding the numbers as well as the operations and the keys to leadership.”

VanderMey has seen Connor excel in other settings, including when Floe was implementing lean enterprise improvements. The McGregor, Minnesota–based company, with manufacturing in Hoyt Lakes, makes extruded aluminum products used primarily in the boating and recreation industries.

As VanderMey moved up from a sales and marketing role to president in 2006, Connor

led Floe through business review planning that helped him gain a big-picture view of the company. Two years later, Connor engaged Floe in lean enterprise programs that improved work processes, eliminated waste, and broke down silos between departments. Overall, the undertaking prepared the company to weather the recession while making huge improvements in its mediocre company culture.

Connor was successful in engaging everyone from the C-suite to middle management and team members working on the shop floor. “Everything we started to implement with lean led to a major culture shift that led to people liking their jobs more with very little turnover. We went from a place where people had to work to a place where people wanted to work. It really turned the culture around,” says VanderMey.

There are other perks to partnering with Connor. “When you’re working with Mary, you don’t feel like you’re in a grind. You’re having fun, exploring how to get to the future successful state,” he adds. “It’s low tension, she’s easy to work with, and she’s very witty. She’s always smiling, but nothing gets past her.”

Sarah Richards, president and CEO of family-owned Jones Metal in Mankato, also has benefitted greatly from working with Connor, turning to her several times for strategic planning guidance. When Richards and her two siblings bought the company from their mother, they retained Enterprise Minnesota and Connor to take a hard look at the future of Jones. Together, they dove deeply into the financial health, strengths, and weaknesses of the company, then devised a plan to help Jones soar into a pattern of growth.

“Mary gave us a lot of good advice, some of it not so easy to hear. That was the first time I realized Mary specifically speaks to the people running the company, and she has a way of connecting to leadership,” says Richards. “She has a very frank, honest, open style. Sometimes it’s sort of a punch, but most often it’s the punch or nudge you really need to be realistic about your company and where you are and where you’re going.”

The family also is majority owner of Advanced Coil Technology in Owatonna, which Jones supplies with its fabricated metal products. Another ownership group has a stake in the business, too. Connor recently led both groups through a planning process in which she interviewed key players from all corners and developed a strategic plan that everyone could support.

Based on these experiences, Richards doesn’t hesitate to turn to Connor for her knowledge, analytical abilities, and skill at developing successful strategies. Plus, her diverse experience in manufacturing, private business, and as a consultant shines through whenever Richards works with her, and she appreciates Connor’s honesty when analyzing the company’s financials and data.

“It’s very clear when you’re working with Mary that she is very credible. She really tells you what she sees and she’s asks a lot of questions. She digs deep, and then she’s going to advise you,” Richards says. “She has a no-back-down attitude, and if you say, ‘This is where I want to go,’ she’s going to help you accomplish your goals. She will deliver the tough messages you need to hear to stay on task.”

There are scores of companies and leaders of manufacturing business across the state who have benefitted from Connor’s experience and wise counsel. She might view her work as the capstone of her career, but she still has plenty more to offer.


MARY CONNOR: A FULL CAREER• Fresh out of high school in Rush City, Minnesota,

Connor starts work at Univac in St. Paul, one arm of the computer giant

• Earns bachelor’s degrees in business administration and business education from the University of Minnesota, while working full time at Univac

• Rises from working on the manufacturing floor to proposal manager at Unisys

• Completes MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management while on maternity leave; commutes from northern Minnesota, where she and her husband raised cattle

• Becomes controller of St. Catherine University in St. Paul, where she works for five years

• Joins husband at Midwest Fire Protection, a family-owned business, overseeing its financial health; sells their share of the company when he dies

• Becomes a business specialist at Enterprise Minnesota in 2000, where she provides lean and leadership training

• Shifts gears to become a business growth consultant, a position she still holds today, working with manufacturers on strategy and advising executives on CEO Peer Councils

• Earns national honors as 2012 Practitioner of the Year from the Manufacturing Extension Partnership for her CEO Peer Council leadership

ne of my growing pet peeves: Those in the uninformed chorus of critics who deprecate

policymakers as hyper-partisan ne’er-do-wells just don’t see how hard they work or how much they are willing to learn.

We witnessed a solid repudiation of the critics this week when Enterprise Minnesota orchestrated a tour of Zimmerman-based UMA Precision Machining for Kurt Daudt, the speaker of Minnesota’s House of Representatives. Daudt joined us for an impressive 90 minutes in which he was engaged, focused and genuinely interested in his constituent company.

“UMA is a great Minnesota success story. They’re part of the fast-growing medical device manufacturing sector and are likely to continue expanding thanks to the new ISO 9001:2008 certification they recently received,” said Daudt. “This certification is a major achievement for a company of their size, and puts them on the same playing field as much larger manufacturers in the United States and around the world. Manufacturing businesses like these

provide good-paying jobs for thousands of Minnesota families in many parts of the state, but unfortunately many are having trouble finding qualified workers to fill open positions. Manufacturing careers can sustain families and be a boost for rural towns like those in my district.”

UMA Precision Machining is a state of the art precision machine shop specializing in medical, defense, and food & beverage industry components. The company offers high-end service and

advanced technology for precision work.Some cynics may scoff that touring

a manufacturing plant in your home district is nothing more than good politics. It enables an elected official to see and be seen in the company of voters. That’s precisely the point. Manufacturing represents fantastic politics! What could make for better politics than jobs, jobs, and jobs.

The tour is one of many that Enterprise Minnesota conducts throughout each year. In addition to offering a wide variety of cutting edge and sophisticated consulting services to small and medium-size manufacturers, we like to consider ourselves a connector of the various players in Minnesota’s manufacturing network. One of our most productive efforts has been to connect

manufacturers with their local policy-makers.

I’ve attended most of them, and Bob Kill, our president and CEO has attended them all. We can’t think of a single example when an elected official didn’t come away with eye-opening insights.

In this case, Speaker Daudt received a tour from UMA founder Tom McChesney, a machinist with 30 years’ experience assisting medical device manufacturers with the development and improvement of their devices. Tom demonstrated how he recognized the market opportunity for a machine shop that partners with device manufacturers to develop and improve their devices and produce prototypes, one-ups and pre-production parts.

His is also a great entrepreneurial story. Tom founded UMA Precision Machining with one machine in his garage. In 10 short years, UMA moved into new facilities adding new technology, new staff, and state-of-the-art manufacturing systems.

Speaker Daudt and all legislators who tour our manufacturing clients increasingly become advocates for the possibilities of manufacturing careers for their young constituents, willing to use their “bully pulpits” to discredit the stubborn myths about how manufacturing jobs are low-paying, repetitive, dirty, dangerous, and unfulfilling.

Manufacturers have a great story to tell. All they have to do is tell it. All you have to do is tell it. Elected officials, in our experience, will arrive a more-than-willing audience – and they will leave a more-than-willing ally.

They realize that manufacturing today offers rewarding and challenging careers in modern, high-tech facilities, especially for people who are willing to invest in the kind of training that will enable them to thrive in an increasingly sophisticated high-tech environment.

The Bully PulpitManufacturers have a great story to tell. But you have to tell it.

O

Final Word

Lynn Shelton is director of marketing and communications at Enterprise Minnesota.


The politics of manufacturing is jobs, jobs, jobs.

The Made in Minnesota Directory of manufacturers is a FREE online directory of products and supplies manufactured right here in Minnesota.

Find hundreds of Minnesota manufacturers of everything from food products to breweries, bakeries, shoes and jewelry to fabricated metals components, machinery, and computers and electronics.

Search Our Database. Search by product, company name, county, industry, and quality certification.

Company Listings Include: Names and addresses of participating companies

Corporate contact information and number of employees

Products they make – and products they are interested in buying from Minnesota suppliers

Information on products and suppliers to key Minnesota industries

Our Manufacturers Supply Chain Database makes it easy for Minnesota companies to find – and be found by – home-state suppliers that are a perfect fit.

For more information on the Made in Minnesota Directory, contact Magda Olson at 651-259-7183, email: [email protected]

It’s easy to use. Register – or search – now! mn.gov/deed/madeinmn

FIND THE RIGHT SUPPLIERS RIGHT HERE.

enterprise minnesota magazine - winter 2015

Documents